A founder member of UEFA, Albania have never qualified for a major tournament, although results have improved in recent years under experienced coaches like German Hans-Peter Briegel and Dutchman Arie Haan. Albania have not ended bottom of a qualifying group in their last six campaigns; indeed, but for a poor finish to 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying, they might have reached the play-offs under Italian Gianni De Biasi.

Albania's introduction to the UEFA European Championship brought a famous win in a losing cause, a pattern that has continued ever since. Having sat out the inaugural tournament, they achieved their first success in the competition against Denmark in the last 16 of the 1964 edition. A side led by perhaps the country's greatest player, Panajot Pano, won 1-0 in Tirana, but the Danes had already done the damage with a 4-0 first-leg victory.

Four years later Albania again displayed their quality, albeit when already eliminated. They held West Germany 0-0 to deny them a finals place for the only time. Since then there has been only sporadic success, a 3-0 victory against Turkey in the run-up to the 1972 tournament and a memorable 3-1 win against Russia in 2003 the highlights. Albania recorded their best performance in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, collecting 11 points, but missed out on the finals.

Did you know?Scorer of Albania's first goal in EURO qualifying and considered the nation's greatest player, up to his teens Pano was a goalkeeper before a shortage of outfield players led to his coach gambling on a change of position. His team lost 4-0, but Pano was on the path to greatness.

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